What do you collect/what is your obsession?

I like everything except rap, jazz, and classical. I'm not really into pop, either. I had a nice vinyl collection but lost it in storage. I have
cassettes, cds and digital now. The 100+ books sounds like me. I had to cut my movie and book collection down quite a bit when I moved so there would
be room in the truck. That hurt quite a lot. At least your books went to a good cause. Your wife must be one cool lady for being so understanding
about your obsession and collection. Good for you for finding somebody like that.

Excuse me for a moment while I go and put on a hat so I can take it off to you, sir! That is one impressive collection.

I collect Star Trek and Marvel silver and gold. As long as it's sterling, .999 fine, or 23k or above. Not so much into paper or replicas. I used
to consider myself a Star Trek collector until I saw my buddy's collection. This man needs an extra house just to store his stuff. He gave
me a Captain Kirk picture autographed by William Shatner to me. He has that much clout with actors from all the series.

Although I do have many games, I don't have the N64 one complete. It was literally one of the worst games ever made so although I do want it for my
collection, I also want it to suffer and I don't feel it has a place in my collection! haha

I know! But to this guy, it's not even small potatoes. He has a cast photo from the original series signed by all the cast members. He has original
props of computer displays backlit by leds. He has a Gilligan shirt and hat in a display frame signed by Bob Denver. He had to buy a machine just to
cut frames for all of his memorabilia.

We were shooting pool tonight, and he kept complaining about a blemish he had on one of his prints. It's one of those things where you needed a
magnifying glass and light at just the right angle to see it. He's leaning towards having Gene Roddenberry's son autograph over the blemish to hide
it.

I don't have a personal collection per say, but I'm building what will hopefully be a world class mobile animal tracking app. One that uses a system
that harkens back to the days when man used the skill of pattern recognition instead of print shape. So for the last four years I have been collecting
images of animal track patterns. Middle of winter is the best time so I'm out almost every day with my camera. I love spending my spare time out in
nature observing every little thing, so this is a great pastime for me. Tracks write the story of the forest and snow is the storyboard. That being
said, this is one "obsession" that I'll be happy is finally put to rest except for occasional updates.

I honestly have no idea what the tracks are from . The first one seems to have a series of 3 prints and although i assume you are American its not
like any animal that i have seen . America or anywhere for that matter has no 3 legged animals . Did you have a dog that lost a leg in an accident .
Nope , no idea .

That's a cool idea. I hope you make it. Have you ever done any plaster casts of animal prints?

Thanks!
No I haven't. The problem is that most tracks that have to be identified have very poorly defined prints or no prints at all, hence the focus on track
pattern instead. That being said I am working on the design of a portable digital scanner that records high resolution, 3D models of the print and
track pattern in the field.

Here is an example of why prints usually don't tell much. This is a divot made from an animal stepping in snow. There is no print shape in any of the
divots because the snow is too powdery. This is the typical situation.

If I look at the track pattern instead I can make a definitive identification. The stride length tells me that it can only be coyote or deer.

Coyotes have almost no center straddle (span between the left and right steps) and deer have a considerably wider center straddle so this tells me
that the track is coyote instead of deer.
Coyote on the left, deer on the right.

Here is one more.
Just a tiny divot with no identifying print features.

Look at the pattern and it is one that only a jumping mouse could make.

I honestly have no idea what the tracks are from . The first one seems to have a series of 3 prints and although i assume you are American its not
like any animal that i have seen . America or anywhere for that matter has no 3 legged animals . Did you have a dog that lost a leg in an accident .
Nope , no idea .

Yeah, its one of my favourites. The reason it looks like three feet is because it places two steps into the center divot (which is why it looks a bit
bigger). We call it a 1-2-1 pattern. I'll let you know what they are from in a bit. Just hoping some others will try first.

Thanks.
Tell you what, learn to like cats and you can definetly have a freebie. I hope to make it relevant to the entire world eventually. Though I'll
probably pass the buck by then if it gets that big.

It works on any surface that leaves some sign. I am using snow for the primary image library because it shows all of the subtle details that may be
available to choose from for identifaction on other surfaces.

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.